Dan Goldberg (JTA)

As the two major parties in Australia’s federal election vie for the title of Israel’s most ardent backer, most Jewish leaders believe that Australia’s longstanding, strong bilateral support for the Jewish state will not be jeopardized regardless of the outcome.

It began with a small ad placed in the Melbourne edition of the Australian Jewish News by John Rosenberg, a Jewish professor who liked neither the constraints of Orthodoxy nor the lack of tradition in Reform Judaism.

It could be the script for a best-selling novel or a blockbuster film. Instead it’s the real story of the estate of a bankrupt Jewish author who died in London more than a decade ago and now is now at the center of a “billion-dollar” copyright case against J.K. Rowling, the multimillionaire author of “Harry Potter” fame.